Neihardt had been writing poetry since he was 12 years old. The first book he published, in 1900, was, The Divine Enchantment, a 10-canto poem. He also worked as a clerk for a trader on the Omaha Reservation, where he earned the respect of the Omaha people – as a result of his respect of their culture. He worked as a reporter for the Omaha Daily News.

Next, he established and was the first editor of the Bancroft Blade (1903 - 1905) in Bancroft, Nebraska. Finding the role of a country newspaper editor unfulfilling, he resigned in 1907. In his resignation letter, he wrote:

“Briefly stated, I was not fashioned for the pleasant and flowery path of a country editor. I can not bring myself to place an epochal significance upon the fact that Miss Somebody ‘went to the next town Saturday,’ or that Willie Brightboy ‘has been very ill with the mumps.’ I concede that this peculiarity amounts to incapacity.”

Working on the Omaha reservation as a clerk for a trader, he befriended the LaFlesche family and learned much about native culture in the area.

During all this time he continued publishing poetry – 10 books between 1909 and 1921.

Eventually he moved to Branson, Missouri in 1920. It is often reported that he was named the "Poet Laureate of Nebraska” in 1921, but in fact he was appointed "Poet Laureate of Nebraska and the Plains in Perpetuity" by the Nebraska State Legislature, a proclamation signed by Governor Samuel R. McKelvie, the same Governor who began the construction of today's State Capitol Building. 

There are two ironies in this:

• First, the new Nebraska State Poet then resided in Missouri! In all fairness, he was, after all, appointed the "Poet Laureate of Nebraska and the Plains”.

• Second, whereas the new State Capitol Building was designed by New York Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, the iconography – that is the symbolic design, consisting of themes embodied in the imagery, sculptures, and inscriptions – was designed and composed by a native Nebraska citizen. Hartley Burr Alexander, the iconographer, who, far from being praised, was muscled out of Nebraska, leading to an exodus of like-minded professors from UNL. All this was due to a dispute with Chancellor Samuel Avery in 1927 over the very issues raised by Neihardt in his Laureate Address, just 6 years before the Construction of the State Capitol Building was completed. Alexander still receives little recognition to this day, and Neihardt, it seems, even less.
  
  The irony in this is that Alexander left because he firmly held to certain principles of education -- i.e., that intellectual, creative, and spiritual growth rather than purely economic development should be the ends towards which higher education is properly directed. These principles were equally firmly held by John Neihardt, and spelled out in his 1921 Poet Laureate's acceptance speech: a stance that held that a university education ... all education ... should be directed towards the primacy of liberal arts rather than just “vocational training,” as we call it today. Many prominent professors left with Burr in support of this principle. 

Avery's criticism was a debased view of the functions of higher education which remains a concern today when universities and government seek to reduce costs and eliminate "waste".

In his acceptance speech (Laureate Address) Neihardt focused on this idea because it emphasized the extreme importance of poetry in our culture and society:

[All emphasis in the following is the editor's, added for clarity.]

"I would say that education is fundamentally a spiritual process. In its proper function it is concerned less with the problem of acquiring the means of life than with the far more difficult one of knowing what to do with life after one is in possession of the means to live. We have heard much of practical education; and there is no fault to find with the expression; for "practical" means that which will work, and surely only that which will work may be regarded as good. .

...

But there has been something radically wrong with our understanding of the word "practical." Owing to the tremendous economic pressure of our individualistic social system, we have been forced to interpret the word as meaning that which contributes directly to material success; and for a great, many people practical education has come to signify that mental training which is calculated to give the maximum of income in the minimum of time.

...

Obviously, if that conception be a true one, a human being is little more than a machine designed for the purpose of diverting to his own uses as great a portion of the world's stream of wealth as may be possible under the circumstances. Thus, the emphasis of life is placed upon a purely material scale of values - which is the scale of the brute. That conception of education results in the classification of men and women by what they possess rather than by what they are ...

...

In that scramble, conscience and human sympathy and all the priceless imponderabilia of the soul become as a mill-stone hung about the neck of him who holds them dear. Furthermore, however much a man, as viewed by the envious eyes of his neighbors, may gain in apparent worth by the possession of material things, it remains true that not one jot is added to the real stature of the man by virtue of that possession; for a man can be no other than that which he truly is, as distinguished from what he has. 

...

And in this sense, it is the prime function of education to make men social beings; to make them, insofar as may be possible, citizens of all time and of all countries; to give them the widest possible comprehension of a man's relation to other men and to is physical environment; to substitute sympathy for prejudice in the list of human motives. 

...

In other words, the consciousness of the individual must be extended to include the [human] race  consciousness. It must be made possible for the one to live vicariously the life of the many from the beginning."

In the summer of 1930, he began to research the American Indian Ghost Dance movement, during which he met and became lifelong friends with  an Oglala holy man – Black Elk. It was out of their conversations that he developed the book Black Elk Speaks, the publication for which he is most widely known and praised by many. Translation difficulties led others to revile the book as misrepresenting the culture of the Sioux. It is, however, seen by many as a welcome insight into a worldview that they had found difficult to comprehend and relate to: that of native Americans.

Neihardt became known as the “American Homer" as the popularity of his "A Cycle of the West" rose.  He places the “Indian Wars” in a perspective that we would all do well to appreciate.

In Neihardt's acceptance speech, he noted:

“… In that complex of spiritual and mental attitudes that have resulted from man's age-long struggle. And in this sense, it is the prime function of education to make men social beings; to make them, insofar as may be possible, citizens of all time and of all countries; to give them the widest possible comprehension of a man's relation to other men and to his physical environment; to substitute sympathy for prejudice in the list of human motives. ... It must be made possible for the one to live vicariously the life of the many from the beginning.”

If Neihardt did not perfectly understand native culture, he did, perhaps, evolve the larger society's understanding towards an appreciation of it. It was a major influence that changed our American culture's grasp of Native Americans from the 19th and early 20th century perception of “injuns” to the 1970s view of them as native people every bit as complex as the rest of us.

Biographies & Bibliographies

• Bio:  

  • Nancy Gillis introduces John G. Neihardt's story and his literary legacy.

  • Black Elk Speaks: [Part 1] [Part 2][Part 3][Part 4][Part 5][Part 6]

  • A Cycle of the West from Standard Ebooks This is composed of fire "songs" aka cantos.

One of the contos is The Song of Hugh Glass Hugh Glass was a member of "Ashley's 100" (1829-1849) seeking fur trapping grounds in the land explored by Lewis & Clarke's expedition (1804-1896) -- who many have not heard of, unless you have seen the movie The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, which is based on the true story of Hugh Glass' journey of vengeance, surrounding his being abandoned for dead after a ghastly bear attack and seeking vengeance on those who abandoned him. The movie takes place in Canada, whereas the actual bear attack took place in Missouri, and his amazing trek, alone and seriously injured, for vengeance led from Missouri, through Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, then back to Kansas. 

• • Commentary on the Creative Process compiled by Robin Neihardt, John Neihardt's grandson.

  • Laureate Address [COMPLETE} of John G. Neihardt Upon Official Notification of His Choice as Poet Laureate of Nebraska - Laureate Address of John G. Neihardt Upon Official Notification o.pdf 

    • • Laureate Address of 1921 | Neihardt! Excerpts, with highly relevant remarks by Robin Neihardt, John Neihardt's grandson, that help put parts of his grandfather's remarks in perspective, especially his references to "racial consciousness".

  • John Gneisenau Neihardt | Nebraska Authors

  • Bibliography — Neihardt Center 

• Poetry:

  • Black Elks Prayer -- recited by John G. Neihart

  • The Death of Crazyhorse -- read by the poet

  • Should We Forget -- read by Alice Thompson, the poet's daughter.

   Selection of Online Readings